Brazilian President Rousseff makes final plea to impeachment committee

Brasilia: Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's top lawyer will present final arguments before an impeachment committee today at the start of a crucial two weeks in the embattled leader's bid to stay in power.

Solicitor General Jose Eduardo Cardozo was due to face the cross-party committee for the last time before it votes on whether to recommend Rousseff face trial for allegedly illegal accounting practices.

The session was expected to start at around 1930 GMT.

The commission recommendation, scheduled for April 11, is non-binding but will set the tone for a vote soon after in the lower house of Congress on Rousseff's fate.

Two thirds of the lower chamber, or 342 votes, are needed to send the case for trial in the Senate. The lower house vote is due to take place April 17, media reported yesterday.

The schedule gives Rousseff – whose main coalition partner went over to the opposition last week – just days to lobby for support and save her presidency.

She could also find out this week if the Supreme Court agrees to let heavy-hitting but controversial ex-president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, join her cabinet.

Lula is crucial to rallying the leftist base and negotiating an anti-impeachment coalition, but has been barred because he is accused in a case connected to a huge embezzlement and bribery scandal at state oil company Petrobras.

Rousseff's vice-president-turned-opponent, Michel Temer, has been linked – though not charged – as a participant in the Petrobras scandal. If Rousseff goes, he'd become president.